


Walkin’ on the Sun

by Jbee



Series: Gates of Askr: Year One [27]
Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24988411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jbee/pseuds/Jbee
Summary: The Kiran is feeling hot, hot, hot! But it's more than just the temperature that's rising along the coast of Askr! A heatwave that has been in effect for a few days and has been bringing out the worse in everyone in their encampment. It's up to our summoner to find a way to cool off her heroes tempers before it's too late to fix any relationships that are broken!
Relationships: Lay | Ranulf/Summoner | Eclat | Kiran
Series: Gates of Askr: Year One [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1703545
Kudos: 6





	Walkin’ on the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> This series is a collection of short stories driven by the FEH Subreddit Weekly Writing Prompts, June 29, 2020. "Sibling rivalry abounds in the Order, and Kiran has to be the mediator."

A most welcomed breeze gently moved the light silk curtains of the beach-side hut Kiran and Ranulf shared. They, and a few brigades, were stationed along the eastern tropical coast of Askr to battle in the tempest vortex. Today was the third day of a severe heatwave and to make matters worse, the rise in temperature created the perfect environment for a surge in harmful algae to bloom along the coastline. As beautiful as the colours mixing in the water looked, it prevented the heroes from taking advantage of cooling off in the ocean, forcing them to row small rafts to reach the vortex in the hot sun.

The summoner sat uncomfortably slumped over her desk, her head resting on the wooden surface, amidst the piles of paperwork and ledges she used to plan the tempest team formations. Her skin hot and slick while sweat soaked through what little clothes she wore. Kiran starred through the empty glass sitting in front of her, the deafening sound of newly hatched cicadas buzzing outside of the hut. The ice ship from Nifl had been becalmed and delayed by light winds, and the Order’s encampment was already running dangerously low of their supply of fresh water. She had issued an order that water would only be used for drinking and medical purposes. To the disappointment of many, there were no more shaved ice treats and frozen drinks until the shipment arrived.

Ranulf moaned from his cot, a damp cloth laid over his eyes, “I haven’t been this hot since fighting in the Kauku Caves.” He groaned, his leg and tail hung lazily over the side. The two of them had spent the day hiding within the shade of their hut.

“I’m sweating in places I didn’t know could sweat.” Kiran sadly laughed, “And I’m not even doing anything!” The overheated Laguz chuckled as he agreed with her from across the room. A loud clang rang out, slicing through the buzzing of the insects, the sound of metal clashing against each other coming from outside the hut. The noise startled Kiran who quickly sat up from her desk, a small parchment note stuck to her forehead. “What was that?” she asked peeling the paper off of her sticky skin. Shouting followed the clang of weapons, Kiran and Ranulf jumped to their feet, pushing aside the curtains of their hut and rushed out into the blazing heat of the sun.

Kiran squinted until her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, spotting where the commotion was coming from, a small crowd of heroes near the raft launch. Braving the hot sand that scorched her bare feet, Kiran and Ranulf dashed over to investigate what was happening in the middle of their beach. The two of them pushed their way through the crowd of heroes to discover the twins, Ephraim and Eirika exchanging blows in the circle of shouting onlookers.

“Your reckless decisions almost got us killed.” Eirika shouted, swinging her sword down, her long tendrils of hair damp and sticking to the side of her face. “One more attack and our poor priest would have been a goner!”

Looking across the circle of heroes Kiran spotted Rhys sitting in the sand with Sakura tending to his wounds.

Ephraim braced and countered his sister’s attack, “Calm down, I had everything under control.” He told her, sweat running down the side of his face.

“Oh, really?” she questioned him, “Is that what you think? She tugged at the straps of her armor, “There’s no way we would have won that last fight, if I hadn’t risked my neck to get across the field.” she told her brother, throwing down her sword and releasing her metal breastplate, letting it fall with a thud in the soft sand. “I should have been the one to lead!” she screamed launching herself at Ephraim and tackling him to the ground, the weight of his armor restricting his movement. “I’m tired of following your orders!” Eirika cried as her fist came down, crashing into Ephraim’s face.

Kiran gasped as blood splattered across the sand, and Eirika pulled her arm back, readying herself to give a second blow, while a shocked Ephraim pleaded with his sister to stop. A hush fell over the crowd, and even Kiran was speechless until the sickening crack rang out as the once gentle twin continued with her assault, tears running down her face and mixing with her sweat and his blood. Kiran’s stomach turned, “Ranulf, pull her off!” she cried, grabbing on to his arm and shaking him from his own state of disbelief.

Eirika screamed as Ranulf and a couple of other heroes jumped in behind and pulled her off of her brother. “Take her back to her tent.” Kiran commanded, gesturing for Sakura to come over, as she bent down to check on Ephraim, as he groaned, barely conscious.

“Disgraceful behavior. No discipline.” Ryoma scoffed, turning to the raft launch, “Come Takumi, Saukra, let us be off. The trials await!”

“How can you say that?” Takumi raised his eyebrow, “You can’t expect everyone to follow their leads blindly! Look at the priest!” he pointed at Rhys, who was resting, recovering quietly from his wounds. “She was right to defy him, regardless if he is her brother.”

Ryoma stopped before he stepped out on the raft, turning slowly towards his younger sibling, “You would challenge my orders too if you disagreed with them little brother?” he quietly asked, his face was flushed and sweat ran down his cheeks from under his helm.

Kiran gasped when she realized the volatility of the situation, and made a mad dash to the two Hoshidan brothers, placing herself between the two. “Enough!” she cried, hoping her cries would deescalate what was taking place. Ryoma took a step towards Takumi, ignoring the summoner in-between them, and after a last minute decision Kiran reached for Breidablik from behind her and pointed it at the large samurai.

She could feel the weapon slide in her palm, slick from the heat and she tried to steady her shaking hand so he wouldn’t call her bluff. This act seemed to snap Ryoma out of the fury induced trance he was in, as he looked down at the small summoner behind the barrel of her strange weapon. “That’s enough…” she repeated herself, as the samurai grunted and turned away.

Kiran sighed, her arm dropping to her side and she slid her weapon back into its holster, “I want everyone to return to their tents. No more trials for the rest of the day.” She announced, as the heroes slowly dispersed, making snide comments amongst themselves. “Sakura, Rhys, can you take care of Ephraim please.” She instructed, before marching back to her hut. Kiran was ashamed for leaving the two healers on their own, but she didn’t want them to see how much she was shaking. Between the humidity and the tension in the air, Kiran felt drained, and sick to her stomach.

She quickly pushed back the curtains as she stepped into the hut, relived to be out of the sun. Kiran braced herself with her arms against her writing desk, drops of sweat hitting the parchments below. She stared at the team roster she had created, “This is my fault.” She whispered, turning back to the entryway when she heard the wooden curtain rings rattle along the bar.

“Well that was fun.” Ranulf sarcastically mumbled, his face was flushed and he lightly panted while walking towards a washing basin and submerging his bandana in the water, “We managed to get Eirika to calm down and come to her senses once we got her out of the sun.” He reported, rubbing the wet hat on the back of his neck before pulling it over his head, “People are losing their minds in this weather, and to make matters worse, they all seem to have years of pent up resentment towards each other.”

Kiran groaned, “I made sibling teams…” she confessed, “You weren’t here, but last year a lot of the heroes hooked up with each other during the summer trials and after, when we arrived back to the castle, things got pretty messy.” She tried to explain, remembering how bad the break-ups were in the fall. “I just thought I could discourage that from happening again by filling the roster with heroes that had family ties.”

“So you’re telling me we have a camp full of hot and angry brothers and sisters who are ready to poke each other’s eyes out over the most trivial thing? That’s not good Kiran.” Ranulf picked up a canteen of water and drank deeply from it before handing it to Kiran, “How do we fix this?”

She looked at him and shrugged, “I don’t know.” Kiran drank from the canteen, the hot water tasted stale and was neither refreshing or enjoyable. She had an older sister, but they were nothing alike, and Kiran couldn’t actually think of a time when they worked out their differences. They always just waited until things calmed down and moved on, ignoring the issues until they came up again. “We just have to find a way to cool them off.” She handed back the canteen.

“Well the beach is off limits, and if the winds don’t pick up the ice ships won’t arrive until tomorrow night.” Ranulf shook his head as he continued, “And we can’t expect anyone from the Order to sit ideally by, sweating in their tents.”

Kiran bit her lip as she listened, wondering if there was any way to get the ice to their location sooner. Maybe they could use Pegasi, or dragons to move the ship faster… “Wait, that’s it!” she exclaimed, an idea began to take shape in her head as she picked up the parchment that listed her team rosters. “I filled the teams with siblings, so they should be here…” Kiran traced her finger down the list of names, stopping when she found who she was looking for. “There!” she smiled, “Ninian and Nils. They should be in the camp somewhere, I’m sure they can help us.”

“Of course.” Ranulf chuckled when he caught on, “Ice dragons.”

“Yup.” She tossed him a sun hat, while placing one on her own head, “Come on, we have to find them!”

* * *

“Freeze. The Ocean?” Ranulf raised an eyebrow when he repeated Kiran’s words. “I get the watermelon slush and frozen coconuts, but I doubt we can pull off what you’re talking about.”

“Well when you say it like that…” Kiran mumbled, stepping off the boardwalk and on to the stony path leading through the Order’s encampment. The camp had been quiet, save for a few tents they had past where the occupants inside were arguing. “And I don’t mean the _whole ocean_.” She mocked him, “Just our area of the beach. I figure we could chip away some ice blocks and use them in the tents to cool people off. This also might take care of the algae bloom along the coast too!”

“Well if you say so!” he chuckled as he led the way, “They should be just around this corner.” Ranulf said, looking at the map of the camp to find the two dragon siblings. He stopped short, and his right ear began to twitch, “Do you hear that?”

Kiran strained to hear past the natural sounds of the forest, low tones of a flute being played in the distance mixed with the dull buzzing of the cicadas, complementing each other to create a sad melody. They followed the music to a nearby tree adjacent to a campsite at the end of the path. “Nils?” Kiran quietly called out, finding the young manakete couched down playing his flute on the other side of the tree trunk.

Nils ended his song, and looked up at them, a forced smile across his face. “Hey you two, if I had known you guys were coming out here, I would have played something more up-beat!” he half-happily told them, but Kiran could see something was bothering on him.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not why we are here.” Kiran told Nils, helping him to his feet, “We were hoping you and Ninian could help us cool down this area with the use of your dragon powers.”

“Sure!” he seemed to perk-up with the idea of a task to do, “But do you think we can leave Ninian out of it? I’m sure I can do whatever you need us to do on my own.”

Kiran and Ranulf exchanged worried glances, “Why don’t you want us to involve your sister, Nils?” Kiran asked. She knew the young manakete couldn’t take on their task all alone.

Nils tightened his grip on his flute and looked away, “Ninian and I had a disagreement.” he admitted, “A few heroes coming back from the vortex kept dropping in, asking to be revitalized by our gifts, so they could continue to fight in this heat.” He sighed, “Which is fine, but it was starting to take its toll on us, and I begged Ninian to tell them “no more”, but she didn’t want to turn anyone away.” Nils hesitated for a moment, and then continued, “I said something to her I’m not proud of before I stormed off.”

“They really shouldn’t be asking you guys to do that.” Ranulf crossed his arms and shook his head in disappointment. “That wasn’t fair to put you two in that position.”

“I know right!?” Nils exclaimed, “But nobody takes me seriously, even Ninian wouldn’t listen to me when I told her to slow down.” He shuffled his foot in the dirt, and furrowed his brows, “I might have told her she wasn’t strong enough to help everyone without me, and that I wouldn’t play my music for her until she stopped treating me like a child.”

Kiran sighed, normally she would have encouraged them to work out their problems without her, but it was crunch time and she wanted to get to work. “If I talk to her for you, do you think you can work together to help us after?” she offered, and Nils nodded in agreement to her suggestion, “Okay, I’ll be back shortly.” Kiran told him, before turning to Ranulf and pulling him aside, “Can you stay here and explain our plan to Nils? Maybe even have one of those pep talks you’re so good at? I don’t want him to think he needs his sister to speak for him.” she told him quietly.

“Agreed.” Ranulf rubbed his chin, “He wasn’t in the wrong, and things might have been different if he had stood up for the both of them.”

“Kiran!” Nils called out, “I didn’t mean it, you know. When I told Ninian she was weak.”

She gave him a kind smile, Kiran knew the struggles of being the younger sibling, always trying to carve out your own place, living in another’s shadow, “I know you didn’t Nils.” She reassured him before leaving the two under the large tree, and walking toward the tent to find Ninian.

Kiran drew back the canvas folds of the tent, calling out softly before she entered. “Ninian?” her sight took a moment to adjust to the darkness and she was hesitant to walk in, but now wasn’t the time for her to be light hearted. She was the one in charge of this mission, she reminded herself. “Ninian?” she called out again a bit louder.

There was a soft moan from the back of the tent, “Kiran?” Ninian asked weakly. She slowly sat up in her cot, holding a cloth to her head, “I’m sorry… I cannot dance for you. I’m not feeling…” she began, sniffing between words before she slumped over, leaning hard to one side.

Kiran rushed over to Ninian’s side, catching the shaking manakete before she collapsed back in her cot. Kiran took the bone-dry cloth away, and brushed the hair away from her face, resting the back of her hand on Ninian’s forehead. She was burning up. Kiran popped the top off her canteen and pressed the spout to the dancer’s lips, tilting it slightly, “Drink this.” She encouraged, helping the dehydrated manakete.

Ninian drank the first few sips with the summoner’s aid, and then took the canteen in both hands, draining it with new vigor. She gasped when she finally finished, panting hard, “Thank-you, so much Kiran.”

“What happened?” Kiran asked rubbing the manakete’s back.

“Nils and I were only trying to help the other heroes.” Ninian began to explain her side of the story, “I wanted to dance for all of them, Nils refused to and he left. But I continued.” She hung her head and sighed, “I was not paying attention to how much water we were consuming, and when I realized our barrel was empty, I was alone and too exhausted to refill it. I passed out before I was able to get any help…” Ninian looked up at Kiran, tears running down her face. “Nils was right, I am weak!” she cried throwing her arms around the summoner, and crying into her shoulder.

“Hey, hey, that’s not true.” Kiran tried to console the sobbing dancer, “And I talked to Nils, it’s not something he truly believes. He just said those things in a moment of anger.” She explained, “But I do think you should have listened to him, when he told you to stop.”

Ninian sniffed and let go of Kiran, dabbing her eyes with the cloth, “You are right. Sometimes I forget that he is not the little boy that relied on me in Llia. But I love him so much, and it is so hard to let him go!” her chest heaved as she tried to hold back a second round of tears.

“You don’t have to let him go, Ninian, you just need to trust and rely on him now.” Kiran explained, “He is older and more mature than a lot of heroes in the Order you know.” She laughed, “Including me!”

Ninian chuckled through her sniffles, “He is, isn’t he?” She smiled at the summoner, “I am so sorry I did not listen to my brother. I promise that I will make an effort to change the way I treat him moving forward.”

“I’m glad to hear that, but I’m not the one you need to tell this too.” Kiran stood up from the cot and offered Ninian her hand, “Come on, he’s just outside.” She said as sunlight from the front the canvas flap bathed the dark tent, causing Kiran to squint. She couldn’t make out the shadows that entered the room.

“No need Ninian, I just overheard everything.” Nils stepped out of the light, follow closely behind by Ranulf. Nils quickly rushed over to Ninian’s side, kneeling down at her cot. “I’m sorry I left you to deal with those heroes on your own, I should have stayed and told them to scram myself.”

Ninian smiled, taking her brother’s hand into her own, “And I am sorry for disregarding your pleas to stop. I put myself, and you in danger, and I will not make that mistake again.”

Kiran watched the two manakete siblings embraced and she exchanged looks of relief with Ranulf, “Why don’t we give them some time to talk, we can refill this barrel for them.” she quietly suggested.

“Sounds good to me.” He replied, taking the empty barrel and hauling it over his shoulder with ease.

“Nils, I trust you can fill your sister in on our plan?” Kiran asked while she pulled the tent flap aside for Ranulf, “I’m putting you and charge of this operation,” she told the young manakete as she left, “Just don’t let it go to your head, okay?” she winked.

“You can count on me!” Nils called out behind Kiran, as Ninian wrapped her arms around her little brother, her face beaming with pride.

* * *

Kiran push her bare feet into the cold sand, and looked out over the ocean. She smiled to herself while she watched heroes laughing, and sliding across the sparkling blue ice that extended out from the shoreline. They were all happy, the tension was gone and they were finally having fun again.

After a few failed attempts Nils and Ninian had manage to freeze a sizable amount of water along their small beach inlet, drastically dropping the temperature along the Order’s encampment, and heroes worked together until the sunset to chipped away blocks to use the cool ice inside of their tents. The whole scene felt surreal and magical to Kiran. The bioluminescent algae that had plagued the waters had been encased in the ice and began to sparkled like blue fireflies stuck in time, mimicking the stars above. She shivered and pulled her sweater tighter, and thought about joining one of the few bonfires that had cropped up along the beach.

“Congratulations!” Ranulf flopped down beside her, handing her a coconut filled to the brim with red slush, “I didn’t think it would work, but you pulled it off!” he laughed.

“All the credit goes to those two dragons, I’m just glad everyone is getting along again. I even heard Eirika and Ephraim reconciled.” She took the straw into her mouth and took a large gulp, choking when the cold icy slush burned her throat, “What… is in this?” she coughed.

Ranulf laughed at her, “Secret family recipe.” He lifted the coconut to his face, consuming the majority of his drink, making a satisfactory exhale when he finished. “I’ll teach it to you sometime when we get back home.” He smiled and looked up at the night sky, watching the clouds move swiftly over the stars, “Do you feel that?”

Kiran was sniffing her curious drink, when she noticed the rustling of the palm trees behind them, and the cool breeze she felt on her face, “Nifl winds!” she answered, “The ice ships should arrive early tomorrow, and our operation should be back on track, just in time for the gauntlet!”

“Look at you!” Ranulf exclaimed, putting his arm around her shoulder, and pulling her close, “You really know how to take charge now and act like a true leader, don’t you?” he shook her excitedly, “I couldn’t be prouder you know; you’re doing great kid.”

She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, “Thank-you, I really needed to hear that.” She admitted, it felt good to be acknowledged for her hard work during this mission, and in the end It’s really what they all needed to hear from their loved ones, a little recognition, appreciation and maybe to just be told that they were doing great once in a while.

End.


End file.
